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Wednesday, May 24, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
N
Jonah
Goldberg
Honoring those who
died defending our
FREEDOM & DEMOCRACY
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
Marijuana production might not seem an
issue to you until it comes into your neigh-
borhood. We found that out when an appli-
cation notice was posted on Goodrich. Many
neighbors are concerned with the safety and
traffic that the marijuana industry attracts.
Furthermore, the water usage is also signifi-
cant not only with watering the thirsty plants,
but showering them off.
Most importantly, the State of Oregon rec-
ognizes that Deschutes County already has
over ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED
unregulated marijuana grows. This spring, a
bill in Salem was proposed to let these grows
double their plant numbers. We don’t have a
marijuana shortage per a very recent feature
on KTVZ; our Deschutes County marijuana
products are being sold black market and
shipped out of state. This is a federal offense.
Deschutes County rural residents in
Tumalo and other locations were instrumen-
tal in implementing Deschutes County rules
for the marijuana operations. Unfortunately,
Salem is calling our Deschutes County rules
“draconian.” We do not want to lose these
rules.
Central Oregon is known for it’s outstand-
ing beauty. Thousands of unregulated mari-
juana grows will certainly impact that beauty
and the lifestyle that we value so much. The
well-funded marijuana industry desires little
or no regulation.
Patti Adair
s
s
s
To the Editor:
I was recently bitten by a leashed dog in
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“We just got back from
the Middle East,” President
Trump said to the president
of Israel after his flight from
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Tel
Aviv, which is also in the
Middle East.
As Trumpisms go, this
one is easy to forgive. But it
does speak to a larger truth.
The president was a stranger
in a strange land, a region of
ancient conflicts and com-
plex political intrigues.
The king of Saudi Arabia
greeted Trump at the air-
port, a gesture ostentatiously
denied President Obama. On
the drive from the airport
the streets were lined with
American flags and Trump’s
face was beamed onto the
side of a building.
At the Riyadh summit,
Abdel Sisi, the authoritarian
leader of Egypt, invited the
president to visit his country,
adding, “You are a unique
personality that is capable of
doing the impossible.”
Trump replied, “I agree,”
to diversely interpretable
laughter. He also returned
the compliment. “Love your
shoes. Boy, those shoes.
Man!”
In short, the Arab lead-
ers, hardly inexperienced in
lavishing praise on men who
crave it, have the president’s
number. Of course, they
were given some guidance
in this regard. According
to New York Times reporter
Peter Baker, Washington
officials offered some tips
on how to deal with the
American president.
“Keep it short — no
30-minute monologue for a
30-second attention span,”
Baker summarized. “Do
not assume he knows the
history of the country or
its major points of conten-
tion. Compliment him on
his Electoral College vic-
tory. Contrast him favor-
ably with President Barack
Obama. Do not get hung up
on whatever was said during
the campaign.”
The success — so far —
of the president’s Middle
East trip stands on the ashes
of Obama’s failures. In
his 2009 Cairo speech, he
unspooled clichés as wis-
dom, thinking that his name
alone would put points on
the board. He bought into
the idea that the road to
stability and peace in the
Middle East went through
Jerusalem.
As Obama learned on
the job, he came to believe
that the road to peace went
through Tehran, crafting
an Iranian deal that alien-
ated both our democratic
ally Israel and our strategic
Sunni allies, chief among
them Saudi Arabia. In pur-
suit of his fantasy, he turned
a blind eye to Iran’s crush-
ing of the Green Revolution
and dithered to the point
of complicity in the Syrian
abattoir. Meanwhile, Iran
remains as implacably hos-
tile and as determined to be
a regional hegemon as ever.
That is the context of
Trump’s fawning reception.
“Welcome, President Not
Obama!”
Equally relevant, the
Saudis welcomed Not
Candidate Trump.
During the campaign,
Tr u m p r a i l e d a g a i n s t
Muslims, indicted the
Saudis as the architects of
the 9/11 attacks and said
(with more than a little accu-
racy) that the Saudis want to
keep “women as slaves and
to kill gays.”
In his speech on Sunday,
Trump flip-flopped to a
somewhat more elevated
realism. He said America
wants “partners, not per-
fection” and that he didn’t
come to “lecture” anybody,
hence the refusal to mention
anything that rhymed with
human rights or democracy.
Which brings me back
to Trump’s naiveté when it
comes to the Middle East.
He manfully called for
the destruction of terrorists,
but he talked of them as if
they were foreign invad-
ers to be driven out of the
swamp, not products of it.
Like the man who only has
a hammer and therefore
thinks every problem is a
nail, Trump believes that
the Middle East’s problems
can be solved with terrific
“deals.” The Saudis, eager
to buy weapons and coun-
ter Iran, are all too eager
to encourage this view.
What alligator doesn’t want
sharper teeth?
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Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.